Appellate review before the Supreme Court of Virginia typically is a two-step process.
First
A party files a petition with the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Virginia. The party may choose to present an oral argument supporting their petition before a panel of justices, or, in some cases, these oral arguments may be heard by the Chief Staff Attorney’s Office who then presents the case to a panel of justices for decision. The justices assigned to these writ panels review the merits of each case with the assistance of detailed memoranda summarizing the facts and issues presented by the appeal. If the panel does not grant the appeal, the appeal is denied. The appellant may petition for a rehearing; however, if the petition for rehearing is denied, the appeal process ends, and the judgment of the lower court stands.
Second
If the petition is granted, the latter phase of the appeal proceeds with eventual oral argument of the case before the full court during a session. The court’s schedule for writ panels and oral arguments is posted on the Virginia Judiciary Website.
Oral arguments are recorded, with recordings available through the Virginia Judiciary Website, at the end of the session week in which the arguments were heard. The website includes audio recordings for the last five (5) years as well as the current year.
The Virginia Verdicts project integrates these oral argument recordings with decided cases.
